The Number Three, Progress, and the Elevation of Worlds
One of the deepest concepts relating the number three to progress and process is found in the Arizal’s teachings. The Arizal revealed that the five times the word “light” is mentioned on the first day of creation alludes to both the five books of Moses and the five levels of soul. According to the Midrash, the soul has five names: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, and Yechidah (Bereishit Rabbah 14:9). Kabbalah and Chassidut explain that the five names depict five ascending soul levels. Nefesh, the lowest soul level, refers to the instinctual, behavioristic drives most associated with the body. Ruach (Spirit) is related to the emotions; Neshamah, the inner soul, is deemed the seat of the intellect; Chayah (The Living One) refers to the interaction between consciousness and its super-conscious origin; and Yechidah (The Single, Unique One) relates to the Divine aspect of soul. The Arizal explains that the first two levels of soul—Nefesh and Ruach—are given to each person but the three higher levels of soul—Neshamah, Chayah, and Yechidah—have to be “earned” through each person’s own spiritual work. He finds an allusion to this in the fact that the Torah uses the word light twice when describing light’s creation and another three times on the first day of creation.
This notion that each person must work to attain three additional levels of soul is related to the tradition that on Shabbat Jews receive a neshamah yeteirah (an additional level of soul) on Shabbat. This soul level represents the elevated feelings a Jew can experience when tapping into the increased sense of spirituality available on Shabbat. Furthermore, the Shabbat’s three festive meals, which correspond to Shabbat’s three time periods—evening, morning, and afternoon, afford a weekly opportunity to reach beyond the mundane and taste the three higher levels of soul.
Another teaching that parallels the soul’s need to elevate itself three levels appears in the Arizal’s profound mystical cosmology. He explains that in the World of Chaos, which immediately preceded our own, the lights of creation were too strong for the, as yet, immature vessels. These vessels consequently shattered in an archetypal event referred to as Shevirat Hakelim (Breaking of the Vessels). Our world, the Arizal explains, is called the World of Rectification since it was constructed from these shattered vessels. Every individual human being is charged with repairing the vessels and redeeming the sparks of light trapped in them. This, in fact, defines the Jewish people’s overriding mission.
According to the Arizal there are five “worlds.” Arranged from the highest to the lowest, they are Adam Kadmon (Primordial Man), Atzilut (Emanation), Beriah (Creation), Yetzirah (Formation), and Assiyah (Action)—the physical, material world we live in. Incidentally, these five worlds are also hinted at by the five appearances of the word light on the first day of creation. The Breaking of the Vessels occurred in the World of Emanation. This cosmic calamity caused the three lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah to come into being, and reality is considered to have therefore “fallen” three levels. Thus, in order for any particular state of reality in any one of the worlds to reach its true source it must ascend three levels. The primordial event of the Breaking of the Vessels is also symbolized by Adam and Eve’s “fall,” which occurred after they ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and were subsequently exiled from the Garden of Eden.
The Arizal, as Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh further explains, revealed in another parallel teaching a complex and detailed system of “relativity” depicting how each level in each world is at times both higher than that which is below it and lower than that which is above it. According to this teaching, no matter how elevated a level appears to be (even if it is a level situated in the higher worlds), it too must ascend three levels to reach its true source. (See Rabbi Ginsburgh’s commentary on the book Chasdei David HaNe’emanim, Part 4, pp. 84-122.)
All the Arizal’s teachings related to the two higher worlds and three lower ones and the need for all reality to ascend three levels in order to reach its true source can be envisioned in the two intersecting triangles of the Magen David. The downward-facing triangle represents the progress of creation and the descent from above to below. It also symbolizes the “fall of reality” caused by the Breaking of the Vessels, and the soul’s descent into this world. Humanity’s existential “fall,” caused by Adam and Eve’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge, is alluded to as well. The upward-facing triangle represents all reality striving to ascend three levels to unite with its true source.
